King’s Cross

The largest area of city-centre redevelopment in Europe

One of the most significant urban developments in the UK, the King’s Cross regeneration is also one of the most extraordinary in London. The 67 acre site with its rich history, became industrial wasteland for more than two decades, and is now being transformed into a new part of London.
The redevelopment involves restoration of historic buildings as well as new construction, with the entire plan organised around internal streets and existing canals beautifully integrated across 26 acres of open space for parks and squares. The new area will provide 1,900 new homes, a hotel,
offices, retail and leisure space, university and schools. Its access to six London Underground lines, two national mainline train stations, and the Eurostar to Paris, is turning King’s Cross into an appealing location to global firms and residences.

Sustainability is evident in all aspects of the King’s Cross regeneration, from energy-efficient initiatives to the re-use of heritage buildings, green transport policies, and several BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ buildings.

We are extremely proud to have been involved in this prestigious development providing consultancy services to a mixture of homes, community facilities and schools. The P1 development, which is the 14 storey Plimsoll Building, designed by David Morley Architects, is the third private residential building to launch and comprises 178 private and 77 affordable/shared ownership apartments. Residents can enjoy a community meeting space, a winter garden on the 14th floor and retail provision, located in the north-east corner.

Inclusive education
The residential building has accommodated two primary schools, King’s Cross Academy and the Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children, on the ground and first floors. The intelligent building design allows the two schools to share facilities and form an integrated, inclusive sign/spoken bilingual environment.

Meeting requirements with flying colours
Our Building Services team were appointed to carry out MEP services alongside Argent, SES Engineering Services and Carillion PLC. Working for King’s Cross Central Limited Partnership, our engineers provided the following key services:

MEP building services design

Code for Sustainable Homes (CfSH)

BREEAM assessment

Acoustic consultancy

Fire engineering

Energy and sustainability advice

Vertical transportation

Planning obligations dictated that the building should surpass Part L requirements by a minimum of 5% by passive measures and without factoring in the carbon benefits of the Energy Centre CHP plant.

Our energy specialists carried out full dynamic simulation, modelling for daylight and over-heating analysis and advised on façade treatments to reduce solar gain. As a result, the building used high performance glazing and enhanced levels of thermal insulation to aid compliance in conjunction with MVHR ventilation.

Innovative solutions to numerous challenges
This large scale project inevitably presented our engineers with a range of challenges which they worked hard to overcome with innovative planning and design.

Working closely with Vital Energy, we considered the building load profiles for utility services, which included connection to the Energy Centre heating network. Our engineers also had to ensure that when the routes passed through the schools, drainage distribution was kept to a bare minimum. Grey water and rain water harvesting was utilised to significantly reduce water consumption.

In addition, our team advised on acoustic control measures necessary to meet the requirements of the Frank Barnes School for Deaf Children. The acoustic control challenges required a sealed building solution with chilled beam cooling.

Waterman’s Director Mark Terndrup commented; “We are incredibly proud to have been involved in this prestigious project which is an exemplary example of how a collaborative approach between designers and contractors can deliver real benefits for the client. The Plimsoll Building typifies the world class residential developments that are being delivered at King’s Cross.”

The Plimsoll Building won the New London Awards 2014, Housing category. Its commercial element achieved BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and its residential element achieved Code for Sustainable Homes 2010 (CfSH) ‘Level 4’ ratings.

Land Securities have recently completed the construction of a major £254m speculative new build development comprising two superb landmark buildings which occupy an island site in the City of London overlooking the Old Bailey.

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